Category Archives: Cincinnati

Ohio’s WHY? kicked off the U.S. leg of their world tour at The Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati last night. Hot on the heels of two 2012 releases – the Sod in the Seed EP (August) and Mumps, etc. (October) – WHY? were greeted with great warmth by their hometown crowd.

Now with an added drummer and two female musicians/vocalists, the band played in horseshoe formation to a sold-out audience. WHY? performed in the Black Box Theatre of the aforementioned art center. It was a tranquil environment – a lovely place to see them play before their hometown crowd (the Wolf Brothers and multi-instrumentalist Doug McDiarmid all went to Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati).Continue reading →

Ohio natives The National are partnering with Obama for America’s Ohio field offices “for a series of events to remind everyone how important it is to vote in the November 6th election.” The band will play a free show at the Newport in Columbus on Wednesday, then another freebie at the Emery Theater in Cincinnati on Thursday. Details on how to acquire tickets below:

“Securing tickets for the Ohio shows is a two step process. First, sign up online by following the link for the show you’d like to attend:

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive ticket pick up information as follows:

10/3, Newport Music Hall Ticket Pickup:
Tuesday, October 2nd
10:00am until 7:30 pm or when tickets run out (first come, first served)
Ohio State University OFA-Campus Field Office
1570 N High Street
Columbus, OH 43201

10/4, Emery Theater Ticket Pickup:
Wednesday, October 3rd
10:00am until 7:30 pm or when tickets run out (first come, first served)
Over the Rhine OFA-Field Office
1130 Main Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

We’ll do our best to let you know via twitter (@The_National) when all tickets have been handed out. Hope to see some of you this week & please remember to vote!”

Comments Off on The National to play free show in Columbus on Wednesday

Well, that didn’t take too long. About two weeks after Death Cab for Cutie closed out the inaugural Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati, festival organizers have announced that the festival will return next year. The dates for the festival are July 12 – 14. Because it’s still a year away, there, of course, is not much additional information as to who might be performing but per the festival’s Facebook page: Tickets will go on sale after Labor Day and will be the same price as Bunbury 2012. Prices will increase when we announce the headliners in February.

Having attended the 3-day festival, I strongly recommend that you pencil this in for next year and take advantage of the early low ticket prices ($93 for a 3-day pass).

We’re just a day away from the Bunbury Festival kick-off. I hope that, if you’re going to the festival, you’ve found the artist features we’ve been posting during the last week to be helpful as you try to navigate the schedule and decide which bands you want to see.

When the schedule was first announced, there were quite a few names I didn’t recognize. I started with the acts that are scheduled to perform on Friday and tried to do some research (watching a video, seeing if the artist had any music on Bandcamp or Soundcloud, visiting Facebook pages, etc.). The first band I came across was Bo and the Locomotive – named by Paste Magazine as THE band that you should know from Missouri. It took me all of 8 seconds to determine that their video for "Give Me Something" was the greatest video I’ve seen since OK GO’s heyday. And, like OK GO, I’m guessing Bo and the Locomotive spent about $15 (for beer and smokes) on the budget to make the video.

These guys have the unenviable task of playing very early on the Bunbury schedule. My experience with festivals like this is that the masses don’t start arriving until early evening so that they can get a decent spot to watch one of the headliners. If you’ve learned nothing else this past week by all the Bunbury Festival featured artist posts, I hope that you’ve learned that there are some really great bands playing early in the day.

I’m not sure where you’ll be 24 hours from now. Me? I’ll be camped out watching Bo and the Locomotive and getting my Bunbury Festival off to a great start!

Bo and the Locomotive performs on the Bud Light stage at 12:45pm
on Friday, July 13

Bo and the Locomotive are a four-piece from St.Louis. Paste Magazine says: "Bo and the Locomotive has a well-crafted indie sound … Each member plays their role seamlessly, creating a record that has a variety of mellow and up-tempo songs."

We already Googled it up when they asked us to play this festival. I won’t spoil it for everyone else, but it means to avoid your responsibilities by claiming to have a meeting with a fictitious person.

What are 3 things that you know about Cincinnati?

– Might as well be in Kentucky
– We’ve never been there
– Go Cardinals

Ume is a 3-piece from Austin, Texas. Chromewaves.com describes Ume’s music as “Songs that balance sweet pop hooks with snarling heaviness, equal debts to punk, stoner, shoegaze and alt rock, insane guitar abuse/heroics and an audience awestruck and won over.”

What does "bunbury" mean? (No cheating; give it your best guess)

The dissonance created by the mating rituals of bumble bees (noticed the festival’s mascot was a bee, so giving it my best guess ;-)

What are 3 things that you know about Cincinnati?

It is the former home of the amazing WOXY radio station (RIP), known for its chili, and supposedly has a cymbal-only store that our drummer might need to check out.

Wussy are a four-piece rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio fronted by ex-Ass Ponys frontman Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker. From my very own "Best of 2011" list, here’s what I said about Wussy’s Strawberry – "One wouldn’t expect Chuck Cleaver, the heavily tattooed Cincinnati songwriter, to produce his best collection of songs this late in his already highly-prolific career, but that’s exactly what he’s done."

The Henry Clay People perform on the Bud Light stage at 5:15pm on Friday, July 13

The Henry Clay People are a fist-pumping 4-piece band from Los Angeles that takes cues from Pavement, Built to Spill and The Hold Steady.

What does "bunbury" mean? (No cheating; give it your best guess)

Its a classic Ohio festival where you bury hamburger and hotdog buns as bands play.

What are 3 facts you know about Cincinnati?

1. The Afghan Whigs, Heartless Bastards, and the National were all from here, right? Greenhornes too says our bassists as he drives.
2. Apparently there is a donut grilled cheese shop we need to try somewhere in the city.
3. Pete Rose used to coach the Reds.